Sir Keir Starmer promises Dame Esther Rantzen a vote on assisted dying if he wins election What’s your thoughts on this subject? Whilst I am no expert on this and remain open minded, it does throw up some concerns. We we can end our pet’s suffering if we so wish (one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do), yet is ending a human’s life a step too far? Would you want all your loved one’s blessing to go through with it ? like I say, I’m open minded. Saying that, would I have switched a button when my dad lie in bed dying for days, not knowing us and suffering, hell yes. Thoughts?
I've always had an opinion on this and it will stay as if the person who wants to have help dying is either of sound mind, or has no quality of life and whomever has power of attorney over medicals with a doctors agreement to it should have the choice to do what they want.
Always been for it under the right conditions and circumstances. Forcing people to live against their will is far more inhumane than peacefully letting them die.
Agree with everybody else if somebody is in pain and chooses to do so and is of sound mind then I’m in favour of it.
The we do it for our pets comparison is an interesting one to look into. For an animal who is suffering it's deemed as a deliberate act of cruelty where you don't take action to put an end to things when an animal is suffering. The reverse is the case for people at all times family, the medical profession and the law require that at all times everything must be done to ensure the person lives for as long as possible and to enable them not do so is against the law How is it right to force a human to suffer as long as possible? Why - well this one always runs into the 'what if someone takes the opportunity to benefit from making that choice against the persons wishes' The thing that always hits home for me is when you see these discussions in the media it's always a person who's suffering on the front page trying to fight for their right to have a choice - not often is it family members begging for help to put an end to a loved ones suffering or grabby ones hoping to benefit. I had a living will drawn up when I was 18 years old which says if I'm unable to care for myself or mentally gone then I'm to receive only pain management and nothing else from family or medical professionals - I'm not sure how it would stand up or if it can be enforced but for the majority of my life my wishes have been made very clear and the 'does someone benefit' question isn't actually relevant. I'm also entirely open to a one way trip to Dignitas for a cocktail under my own steam if I need to especially if in the years to come should dementia start to happen because there's no way in hell I'm ever letting myself end up like my grandmother did
I’ve long been in favour of individuals having the right to choose when they die. Like you this was reinforced when I had to sit with my dad in hospital for 8 days 16 hrs a day, watching him die a truly horrible and undignified death. I’m certain that if I had shown him a video of how he would die he would’ve been horrified. I’m all in favour of individuals having the right to choose and for living wills to have standing in law.
I'll start off by saying that I agree by and large with what's been said, I'm absolutely for people making that choice in the right circumstances. But it is not straight forward at all. Saying it should only be done to end suffering - well who decides what level of suffering is enough? Everyone who's ever deliberately killed themselves has reached their own personal limit of suffering. I remember reading a story about a guy who was paralysed from the waist down and down his left hand side but still had control of his right arm, head and neck and was able to communicate fully, but he wanted to end his life. Now to me that seems like there's still a significant level of quality of life to be had there. If we're going to say that he can make that decision, or someone with power of attorney can, then that also opens a whole other can of worms - what about children born with severe disabilities who have a similar or worse situation? Can the parents as the ones responsible for them decide to effectively abort them after birth? This sort of thing if it's going to be implemented needs to be very, very specific on the exact circumstances that it is applicable, but even then you'll always get someone that doesn't quite qualify who wants to end their life.
Of course there needs to be safe guards in place as some would happily bump off mum or dad to get their grubby fingers on the will. When do we decide person A should have care withdrawn if they cannot speak for themselves. Massive responsibility deciding on behalf of someone else that their life should come to an end and it is one I would not like to make. Luckily never been in the position of making the horrible decision that life support can be withdrawn and never want to be.
This is where living wills would absolve people of making the decision. Obviously there are always going to be situations that don’t fit within any future law, but personally I think It’s an individuals right to decide.
Providing such end of life decisions can only be made under medical supervision and with the consent of two doctors I'd be for allowing assisted suicide, but I'm not sure the doctors themselves will be up for it.
I’m all for it. If someone could please kill Birmingham City and put me out of my misery it would be much appreciated..
It has been legal here in Western Australia for about 3yrs now and I know someone who took the option. It was my wife’s friend/boss who was a Professor of Neurology who ended up with a Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. There was no sugar coating it with her and she knew the eventual outcome so she took the AD route. There are quite a few rules/laws and the person has to be of sound mind and sign off. Told my wife that if I ever get diagnosed with, say, MND I will be going this way when the time would be right.
My grandmother died 25yrs ago of cancer, she was such a tiny frail we woman and my heart broke for her because she crawled around her bed for days in agony and no matter how much we pleaded with the nurse to give her something for the pain the nurse said she has given her the maximum dose she can administer, i felt so much frustration and anger at the system that encourages such cruelty in the final days. Now within the last 10 years ive been at the bedside of four terminally ill family members the last being my brother 2 months ago, he was sitting up chatting away to me, no where near deaths door in my opinion, in fact the doctor advised my sister in-law to look into hospice care for when he leaves hospital as he would become to much for her to bear. Later that evening the nurse assessed his pain level and recommended that the morphine syringe driver be connected to manage pain, when i heard these words my ears picked up because in was the exact same words used with my other three relatives before the driver was connected, the longest one of them lasted was around 2 hours after it was connected. She connected it and thankfully pain left, he started scratching, apparently morphine does that, he dosed off and 45mins later he was gone. I'm no expert but i think the drug lowers the heart rate so much that a weakened body just gives up. His death left me in no doubt that assisted dying for some is here but legally they would never admit that, it just comes under the pain management umbrella and it is something i very much agree with. No one should have to die in pain!
